


Addictions

by lilyconrad



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Codependency, Drama, Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Mafia AU, Mildly Dubious Consent, Murder, Recreational Drug Use, Sort of a Sith AU, Violence, no redeeming qualities here folks, obikin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-08
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2019-06-23 16:33:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15610398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilyconrad/pseuds/lilyconrad
Summary: A Sith AU with three-piece suits: Ben is a "negotiator" for the mafia and Anakin his faithful, frightening enforcer.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FromDreamstoEmpires](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FromDreamstoEmpires/gifts).



> Inspired by [a prompt on Tumblr](https://writegowrite.tumblr.com/post/173691477224/mafiaau-obi-wans-civilized-negotiator-y-self) and added to as what ended up being a late, late birthday present for FromDreamsToEmpires! Hope you enjoy!

Behind a warehouse long abandoned by everything but rats, beneath a blue sky smudged brown by pollution, a pristine black Mercedes sat idling like a wraith. The subtle purr of its engine and the elegant lines of its silhouette seemed to mock the dingy lane it sat in almost as much as the fine profile of its driver as he glanced up from his phone. **  
**

_Anakin shouldn’t be too much longer_ , Ben thought, leaning back into the leather seat. There was no concern or worry about anyone seeing the expensive car. The only people who had seen it roll into this grungy, forgotten little corner of the city like a mirage in the desert would not live to tell anyone about it.

Anakin, his enforcer, knew that too. That was something Ben appreciated as much as the fine quality of the car and the tasteful designer suit he wore: the wordless understanding of the younger man who was currently inside the warehouse doing what needed to be done.

Whenever Ben had the valet bring the black Mercedes around in the morning, it was understood no one was to leave the day’s appointment alive.

There were usually no blunt orders given between them, only a strange, beautiful synchronicity he and his new hire had fallen into that pleased not only Ben’s desire to remain innocent in a court of law but his inherent need for order and sophistication.

 _Everyone pretends to have morals, but quality–class, you might say– is something you simply have or you don’t_ , he had told Anakin the first night they had met.  _Your anger is a thing of beauty, something the Devil himself would be proud of. Has anyone ever told you that?_

Anakin had been drunk and high, staring at him with pretty lips dabbed with the red of a cut he had earned decisively winning a nightclub fight Ben had happened to witness from the VIP lounge nearby.

There had been something about Anakin’s precise, almost joyful brutality as he fought, the total lack of restraint, that had fascinated Ben so much he got up and had the bouncer dragging Anakin out bring the young man to him instead. Ben had steered Anakin to a quiet booth and, once they had both had a drink, asked him if he would like to continue bloodying others for considerably more reward than a few seconds of adrenaline.

And now here they were, a few months later, Ben the quiet, stern voice of the Council and Anakin the new nightmare that followed when warnings went ignored.

Ben glanced up from his phone at the creak of rusted hinges squealing somewhere down the way. Anakin rounded the corner walking toward him, sliding his lithe arms through the jacket of a suit almost as expensive as Ben’s and wavy hair drifting down into his face before he pushed it back.

His white dress shirt was pristine, the clothes he had gone to work in burned or buried with the bodies somewhere on the warehouse grounds Ben was happy to only have a vague knowledge of.

He nodded as Ben pulled up to meet him, thudding heavily into the seat as he shut the door behind him. There was a flush to his cheeks and a wild look in his eyes that made Ben grin at the contrast between them and the expensive clothing he wore.

“Any trouble?”

“No. Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

“Good.” They pulled away to the lovely hum of the engine, Ben idly wondering if Anakin would come to him that night as he sometimes did after a particularly violent job: a warm figure sliding into the dark of Ben’s bed, silent and high and desperate for things he was too ashamed to ask for otherwise.

He smiled to himself and turned on the radio.  _Oh, I hope so._

 


	2. Chapter 2

When Anakin had woken up this fine fall morning in a city far from home, he had not planned to end his work day handcuffed and thrown into the musty, cramped trunk of a car.

The vehicle rattled and thumped all around him as it turned off onto a road less well-maintained than the paved one they had been on for the last hour, and he tried to ignore the panic growing inside him.

Ben was always talking about focusing on the moment, not the ones before or after, just the one happening right then. It was crunchy granola bullshit, but the way Ben explained it it somehow didn’t feel like it, and Anakin took a few deep breaths to calm himself and assess where he was. Handcuffed. Bad.

No. No judgment, Ben always said.

Handcuffed.

He could still come out swinging when they opened the trunk. They hadn’t beaten him much before stuffing him inside, too panicked by the boss’s boss ranting inside the mansion over the men Anakin and Ben had killed trying to fight their way out of the alleged negotiation they had come for.

_Yeah, I could come out swinging at what? At least two guys with guns?_

The whine of two motorcycles catching up behind the car sent another angry thrill through him. _Make that four. They must have called for a couple of the house guards to come along too. Sure. Four guys with guns._

_Great._

Anakin imagined how it would go, details coming in disturbing clarity: there would be a rough stop, then the hollow click of the trunk and sodium lights or the dark skies of the countryside. He would try to leap out and throw a wild punch or two, and then feel the ice-hot punch of a bullet through his side, or his back.

It wouldn’t be the first time he’d gotten shot in the two years he’d worked for the Council, for Ben, but it would probably be the last. _Ever._

In the hour after he had been tackled, tied up and blindfolded, it had become clear from the angry phone calls in the next room over he would not be turned loose as a peace offering or in any kind of bargain. He was finally going to end up the way everyone in his line of work did, sooner or later. Dead and immediately forgotten by everyone but whoever was assigned to get rid of his body.

 _No_ , he told himself, fighting down his fear. _No imagining the future._

_Just right now._

One stubborn thought rose, refusing to go away and comforting in its certainty. _Ben is safe. I heard him make it to the car and get away, and that was over an hour ago now. Not enough time to get help and come back, but at least he made it out._

Ben’s survival gave Anakin an unexpected feeling of pride in the middle of the cold terror of his situation. _He’s ok. He’ll be ok. He always will._

 _Son of a bitch doesn’t even know how to die,_ he thought with a strange, deep affection and a nervous laugh as the car slowed to the crunch of gravel and the whisper of water rushing nearby. _He’s important. He’s what matters._

_Not me._

The car creaked and shifted once and then again as the two burly men he had fought earlier got out, their conversation muffled by the roar of the two bikes riding up and stopping. Anakin fought to keep his focus, tensing and relaxing his muscles as he waited for them to walk back to the trunk, the stale air filling his lungs with every measured breath.

_Now. Just think about now._

“What took you jackoffs so long?” the driver asked, leaning against the side of the car from the way it rocked. “Higher ups want this one bled before he goes in the water and he ain’t exactly been the most fucking docile.”

“He was late getting his bike from the garage,” a rider shot back, annoyance clear. “I was fucking waiting ten minutes for him out front.”

“So he’s still alive?” the second rider asked, walking up to the group and still wearing his helmet from the muffled sound of his voice.

“Yep,” the driver answered, slapping a hand on the trunk and rattling Anakin’s concentration. “Gonna wish he wasn’t in a few min--”

The roar of a gunshot cut him off.

Anakin jerked in his handcuffs, trying to scrabble backward as two more tore through the night outside in quick, vicious succession.

He was still trying to understand if he had been shot or not when the trunk popped open to a rush of cool night air and moonlight. Ben looked down at him, tossing a bike helmet aside and a carefully neutral expression on his face despite the anger burning in his eyes. “Hello, Anakin. Can you walk?”

“You… how?” Amazement rushed through Anakin as he sat up, stunned at the realization that not only Ben had come back for him but that he was furious and scared. For Anakin. _For me._

_He cares about me. He really does._

“I came straight back on foot once I lost them, but these two had already left with you,” Ben said in a more clipped tone than usual, clearly fighting to calm himself. “Fortunately, I heard the guards talking about having to come out here. Such a shame one of them tripped on the stairs and broke his neck on the way to his bike.”

“Fuck, man,” Anakin whispered with an astonished grin, holding his cuffed hands out. “Get me out of these?”

“Well, that’s not what you usually say,” Ben sighed with his own weary relief, shoving the trunk lid open all the way and helping Anakin out. “Stretch your legs first while I search them for the keys. And you’re riding with me. No sense having to ditch two bikes later.”

 

* * *

 

When Anakin and Ben arrived back at the sprawling, Council-owned hotel they had begun their day at, two burly men were waiting for them in the lobby, identical faces set in frowns as serious as the suits they wore.

“Good to have you back,” one of the the twins nodded as the other spoke into his cell phone, confirming their arrival. “We don’t expect any immediate trouble here on our own turf, but we’ve been assigned to you two personally for the rest of your stay and your rooms have been upgraded to a higher-security floor in case the bastards try anything else before you leave tomorrow. Your things have already been moved over to the new rooms.”

“We are glad to have you, Cody,” Ben offered graciously as he and Anakin followed the pair to an elevator set off to the side away from the main entry, strolling past vast tumbles of floral arrangements and tasteful fountains.

“Truth be told, sir, you may get stuck with us permanently,” the second man said once he had hung up and tucked his phone back into his pocket. “You two are getting too valuable to lose going off on two-man assignments.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere, Rex,” Anakin deadpanned.

He got a grin in return. “Oh. Well then, have I mentioned your code name on our radios is ‘The Chosen One’?”

“Damn straight.” This was normal, this laughing off of anything and everything serious, and Anakin leaned against the back of the elevator as they rode up, folding his arms and willing himself not to think about what had almost happened earlier that night.

“Should I send Kix by?” Cody murmured, drawing Anakin’s attention to the grim line Obi-Wan’s mouth was pulled into.

“I… I might like something stronger than a drink for once, yes. What about you, Anakin?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. Why do you want something? Are you hurt?” Anakin asked, concerned and startled. Cody and Rex studiously watched the cool white numbers tick by above the elevator door, this not the first time they had pretended not to hear that worried tone.

“No.” The casual ice in Ben’s response, the opposite of the fire in his eyes when he had first seen Anakin alive and unharmed in the trunk, was a warning. Whatever had left him in the mood for a visit from their unofficial doctor, it was not to be discussed in front of others, the twins or not.

“Here we are, sir,” Cody said as the elevator came to a stop, opening on an elegant, dimly lit hallway with just two doors along it and one at the end. “You two are in the suite down there and we’re in the rooms leading up to you. I’ll send Kix up.”

“Thank you,” Ben nodded, patting Cody’s shoulder as he walked past him, Anakin following with a concerned expression twisting his pretty mouth. “Good night, gentlemen.”

“And to you, sir,” they answered as Anakin lifted his hand in a wave over his shoulder.

 

* * *

 

Kix came and went quickly and quietly, as he always did, checking over both of them one by one as they took turns lying out on the large bed in the master bedroom and looked out at the beautiful, artificial stars of the city lights rising all around them. As promised, Ben was uninjured, but without comment Kix left a few extra tabs of Anakin’s mildest favorite in their own bottle on the far end of the side table from Anakin’s usual smorgasboard of questionable pharmaceutical choices.

When it was the two of them alone again, the overhead lights turned off to let the glittering beauty of the city in, Anakin came from the doorway where he had been standing since Kix started his check of Ben and sat down next to him. The bed shifted a bit with his weight, and he leaned his head against Ben’s bare shoulder. Both of them were shirtless after Kix’s inspection and Ben’s skin lay warm against his cheek.

Anakin’s eyes were on the bottles sitting in front of him like a little miniature version of the city outside-- little towers promising fun and danger, dreams and nightmares-- all of it lovely distraction, all of it calling to him with the easy promise of forgetting just how close he had come to dying that night.

But Ben was obviously upset despite his usual calm demeanour, upset enough to consider breaking his own personal rule of never dabbling in what Anakin enjoyed so much, so Anakin only leaned his head on Ben’s shoulder and felt the muscles there move as Ben raised his whisky glass to take a sip and then lower it again. The ice in the glass clinked, loud in the silence.

“Hey,” Anakin began, unsure of what to say.

Ben squeezed Anakin’s hand with his free one in return, rubbing his fingers along his knuckles.

“Thank you,” Anakin said. “You… you didn’t have to come get me.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Ben muttered into his drink, taking another swallow before setting it aside on the same table with the pills. “Did you give up?”

“What?”

Ben turned to look at him, shadowed face hard with worry. “Did you give up? Were you ready to give up the fight before I got there?”

“No. You know me,” he tried to smile back, blue eyes searching Ben’s. “I don’t know how to give up.”

“Good.” Ben closed his eyes and took a deep breath, placing both hands on Anakin’s shoulders and leaning forward to touch his forehead against Anakin’s.

It was the most physical affection Anakin could ever remember receiving from Ben while they were both sober.

He went still, stunned and longing for more as Ben whispered to him in the airy darkness of the room. “Never give up because I will always find my way to you. Always, Anakin. Do you understand?”

“I…”

“Do you understand?” His fingers slid down and tightened on Anakin’s arms, almost painfully so, but Anakin was too lost in what Ben was saying to notice. “I will _not_ lose you.”

Anakin nestled his head down against Ben’s shoulder with a wordless nod, overcome with emotion. He left it there, breathing shallow against his collarbone, mind racing with things he wanted to admit to Ben, things he wanted to tell him, but he couldn’t say a single one.

“Shh, it’s alright. I’m here. I’m here,” Ben murmured into Anakin’s hair, the words so quiet they were almost more breath than sound.

 _I want you to love me so much. I don’t want you to love me because I don’t deserve it. I… I don’t want you to have to take care of me. But I love it when you take care of me..._ Anakin was already sitting up and reaching for the side table before he understood what he was doing, unprepared for the sudden rush of conflicting feelings at Ben’s rare show of honest affection. “Well,” he said, looking up with a bright, rushed smile, “you know the best way to celebrate not getting fucked up by the other side, right?”

“Hmmm?” Ben asked, sliding his hands up to rest on Anakin’s face, giving him his own half-hearted grin, one that said he too was treading on the edge of what he could allow himself to admit to.

“The best way to celebrate not getting fucked up is to get fucked up yourself.” Anakin grabbed the bottles without looking, popping each lid off with a sharp twist and rattling a few pills out into his hand until he had a small pile carefully cupped in his palm.

“You are not taking all of those, Anakin,” Ben cautioned, but Anakin only kissed his cheek, a touch of warmth in the dark.

“I know.” He held out his hand. “Choose a few for me? You’re good luck.”

“I don’t know what half of those are, especially in the dark.”

“It’s ok,” Anakin smiled again, willing himself to calm down. He was close, so close to panicking, and he was just a few minutes and swallows away from heaven, from a place soft and hazy and free of his emotions that terrified him with their depth. “You’ll make me feel good.”

He bit his lip at the frown on Ben’s face and licked his lips, knowing Ben was almost there and turned on at the way Ben’s gaze flickered down to his mouth. “Really good.”

A small part of Anakin hated himself for how easily he could manipulate Ben, but he longed for him so much it didn’t matter. “Please?”  

Ben sighed, and Anakin knew he had won. As he always did.

 

* * *

 

Anakin was a strange angel in Ben’s life: compared to his younger days Ben drank much less once he had grown fond of Anakin.

There were still confused mornings lined in headaches and surprises in the shapes of bruises from fights he barely remembered. But now there were never any more weeks he could not account for or dangerous situations Council members had to retrieve him from.

Now there was someone more reckless than him, more precious than him, someone who leaned on luck even more than he had and would one day reach to find it not there.

Ben could not allow that.

So he kept Anakin close in every way he could, especially in moments like this. He was careful to stay more sober on nights Anakin did not, careful to pretend he didn’t know what he was doing when he picked out pills seemingly at random from Anakin’s palm.

He always gave Anakin just enough to take off the edge glittering sharp in his pretty blue eyes and let him say what he really wanted.

What they both really wanted.

Tonight he fed Anakin by moonlight with the same gentle touch he always did once Anakin shifted over to sit in his lap, leaving one bit of color at a time on his pretty tongue, waiting for Anakin to wash it down with a swallow from his own glass before adding another.

“I think that’s enough for now,” he said as Anakin nuzzled against his throat, tossing back a final drink himself and clicking the glass back onto the table across from them. “Don’t you?”

“I guess,” Anakin said between soft, tentative kisses along his collarbone. They sat together in the darkness, Ben stroking Anakin’s back as they looked out across the city and glad to have nothing more to focus on than the warm, strong weight of Anakin in his arms.

“Shall I go and let you get some sleep?” he finally asked a long stretch of minutes later. His mind had calmed and Anakin’s kisses along his throat had grown lazy and aimless, the moon vanished behind one of the taller skyscrapers outside in its slow rise upward.

“No,” Anakin mumbled, pushing his head against Ben’s chest again, wrapping his arms around him. “Stay. Don’t you want to stay?”

“Always,” Ben said with an affection that he was surprised to discover he was still capable of.

“Then why… why do you always ask if you should... go or whatever? Don’t you want me?”

“Yes,” he whispered, lifting Anakin’s chin to kiss him before Anakin’s pouting turned into brooding. “You know I do.”

Anakin gave a happy sigh, half-lost to reality and tracing his fingers along Ben’s back before he pulled Ben down on top of him with a soft laugh. “Good. Then stay.”


End file.
